


sending out a signal (i hope you catch it)

by queenofhcpes



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Self-Indulgent, post c2e106
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26140222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofhcpes/pseuds/queenofhcpes
Summary: “You have a really tight group of friends in them,” Vilya observes, not for the first time since they’ve met the woman.Jester’s face brightens up. “Yes, yes. We’re like family. And speaking of family – are you excited to see yours?”Or Jester decides to approach Vilya about contacting her family before she goes home.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 161





	sending out a signal (i hope you catch it)

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't really written anything fanfiction-like in YEARS, haven't really wanted to, but I've been desperate to write some Critical Role related stuff for a while now, so here you go.
> 
> This is purely self-indulgent, not even sure if the characterizations are on point or not, if they aren't I am sorry, I tried.
> 
> Also this is really just a rambles, nobody checked so it might have mistakes, I’m sorry in advance for that too.
> 
> If you read it, thank you so much! If you want, you can find me on tumblr, my blog is jcylenz.

Jester wakes up to shifting and movement and sunshine quietly breaking through the branches around them. She lies there for a few moments, expecting the group to wake around her like they usually do, only to realize the movement around came from a single person who is already outside. Probably to not wake anyone else up.

Jester takes a look and notes all of her companions and friends still fast asleep. Which means it was Vilya who was an early riser and as she looks around, she sees the woman standing outside on some kind of balcony (Jester thinks she remembers seeing something that resembled a balcony the previous night as they were coming in, but she was also very preoccupied with their conversation, the tea Beau already started nagging Caduceus with and the oncoming TravelerCon and everything she would still need to do in only a few days’ time), perched against it, looking towards the village.

She considers going back to sleep and letting Vilya have a moment alone, but decides against it. She’s been turning an idea over in her head since Caduceus lifted the charm off of Vilya and the woman got her memories back. She wasn’t actively trying to find a moment where she could speak with her alone about, but this is just too perfect to miss out.

Slowly, with as little noise as she possibly could, she rummages through her bag for some baked goods and tiptoes outside.

“Morning,” Vilya greets the blue tiefling with a short, small smile before she focuses her attention back onto the village. “I apologize if I woke you.”

“No, it’s okay. Scones?” Jester offers. “Caduceus made them while we were on the ship, so they might be a bit hard, but they taste really good. It was so nice of him to do it, too – he saw that I was trying to get this other guy, Essek to get us some pastries, which he of course didn’t do, so he decided to make some.” She is bouncing back and forth on her feet while chatting, Vilya listening over a scone.

“You have a really tight group of friends in them,” she observes, not for the first time since they’ve met the woman.

Jester’s face brightens up. “Yes, yes. We’re like family. And speaking of family – are you excited to see yours?” There is a softness that rushed through Vilya’s expression, combined with what Jester could read as a strong sense of longing and… is that a hint of anxiety? Probably. The woman hasn’t seen her family in over two decades, she has no idea how they are, what happened to them, if they are still waiting for her to come home or moved on. Jester couldn’t even imagine what that must be like.

She herself would go mad crazy if her mama would disappear for over two decades. She rushes to continue, “Because I was thinking, if you’re going to be the one to help get everyone out of the island, that means you get to go home first. And I know there’s this thing that captains leave their ships last – Fjord taught me that –, and you’re kind of the captain of this village, I guess, but it also doesn’t seem that fair that you have to wait so long without knowing anything them. So I was thinking, I have this spell—I can send anyone I am familiar with a message and I know I don’t know your family, but if you describe one of them to me, tell me about them a bit, I could try to send them a message. It worked before, I sent Veth’s husband a message without ever meeting him, so it is possible. That way you could let them know you’re okay and they can stop worrying and know they only need to wait a few more days to see you again. Maybe even arrange where you could go to through the trees.”

Vilya tentatively listens to Jester and her rushed rambling until Jester stops talking almost as abruptly as she jumped into the rant itself, and for one, two, three moments all that breaks the quiet of the morning is nature around them.

Jester thinks maybe her idea wasn’t that good after all – it was proven time and time again that what she thinks could be good is actually viewed completely differently by her friends, so maybe while she thought this could be helpful, she could have stepped over some lines she didn’t realize were there for Vilya. They don’t know the woman, after all, they’ve only met her three days ago and she hasn’t even been herself for some of it, so how could Jester really know what would be inside her head, and she is opening her mouth already to tell Vilya that she doesn’t have to, that it was just an idea and if she isn’t ready for that yet, it’s okay, when Vilya whispers with what sounds like a string of hope in her voice, “Could you really do that?”

Jester nods fast and quick. “Yes, yes, like I said, I already did it once, so if you describe the person well enough, I should be able to get through to them. It’s going to be that man in the dome, right? Is he your husband?”

Vilya nods. “Yes, he is. Or he was, when I left. His name is Korrin. But… it’s been 20 years. I don’t know if he is still… I don’t want to step into anything if he’s moved on.” There’s a sadness in Vilya’s voice that touches Jester’s heart, and she doesn’t know what to say, what she could possibly say. It’s the same dilemma she saw in so many of the other villagers the day before battling – Vilya might have not had a family on the island, but after such a long time, who knew what kind of family was waiting for her back at her home? If there was anyone even waiting, really.

There is, probably, Jester corrects herself quickly in her mind. Vilya has a daughter, based on the request she had to Caleb when he turned the top of the dome into all of their memories.

“So it will be to your daughter, then?” she carefully prodded, trying to move the conversation away from a possibly painful topic Vilya might not want to discuss.

“Yes. Her name is Keyleth, she’s—well, she was 14 when I left, so she changed a lot since I last saw her, but she has wild red hair, half-elven features. People always said she looked a lot like me.” She pauses for a moment. “I am not sure how much details you need, or how accurate I could be with this much time already passing.”

Jester tilts her head to the side. She isn’t sure if it would be enough, but she would certainly try.

“We’ll see. I can do the spell more, so if it doesn’t work the first time, I can try again.”

She shoves the last bite of her scones into her mouth and quickly eats it – she can’t have the temptation there while she casts the spell -, and based on the description Vilya gave her, she creates a picture of her daughter, Keyleth in her head.

“The spell only allows 25 words to go through, so count for me while I send the message. It’s usually Fjord who does that for me, but I don’t want to wake him up just for this, he was so tired he wanted to sleep from the moment we got to the village, so I want him to rest some more.”

Vilya frowns at her, but Jester doesn’t explain any more, instead jumps into the casting the spell.

“ _Hello!_ ” she starts “ _You don’t know me, but I know your mom, Vilya. Well, sort of know her, we just met her, and she wants you to_ know that she is okay and coming home soon.” Vilya needs a moment to realize what Jester asked of her, and only starts counting halfway into the the message so some of it definitely didn’t go through, Jester just isn’t sure what did and didn’t go through.

And she barely said anything, really, so even if all of it arrived to Keyleth, that wasn’t too much. But really, 25 words were nothing, she needs to find a way to extend the word count of that spell. Maybe she could ask Caleb about it later. He did create a whole new spell to give Veth her real body back, so extending the word count of an already existing spell shouldn’t be that hard, right?

“I’m going to send another Message, just to make sure your daughter gets all the information,” she declares and Vilya is now clearly prepared and ready to count when she casts the spell. “ _Sorry, got cut off. What I was trying to say is, your mom lost her memories for a while - like twenty years - but she will_ be home soon.”

The last three words don’t go through, but Jester figures she managed to get more information through and even though the fact that Vilya is going home soon didn’t get through either time, she still wants to hear what her daughter’s reply is before she sends another. The Inevitable End proved that people wouldn’t know they can reply to both messages if the messages are close to one another, and she doesn’t want to waste more reply opportunities of Keyleth.

Jester is waiting, waiting, waiting for what feels like a super long time when it’s probably nothing more than a few moments, while Vilya is looking at her expectantly – did she tell the woman that the receiver of the Message can reply back or did she forget about that? She is waiting so long, she wonders if the messages even went through and reached Keyleth or if she should ask Vilya to tell her a bit more about her daughter, and then she hears an unfamiliar voice in her head.

“ _Uhhh, what?”_ Confusion. Yeah, okay, that checks out. The only problem is, Keyleth decides to not reply to her, but talk to somebody else around herself, not knowing that Jester would hear the beginning of it. “ _Get Derrig, I’m going to Whitestone right now, I need to ask Percy- I don’t care that it’s the middle of the night—_ “ And then the message cuts off. There was a panicked urgency in the woman’s voice and Jester wanted to scream back something to fight with her, but there’s no point, it’s not like the woman would hear.

“She could hear me,” she explains to Vilya, trying to still understand what she heard. It was weird. And made no sense to her, really. Why would she not ask about her mom? Who was this Derrig, what was this Whitestone and why did she have to talk to another person whose name she couldn’t remember? “I just don’t think she really got the message? Or, like, she got it, and then thought it was something not okay or not true or I’m not sure, but she wants to go to Whitestone to talk to somebody? Does that mean anything to you? There was also a Derrig mentioned.”

Vilya shakes her head. “Never been to Whitestone and the Air Ashari didn’t have any contact with them either while I was still there. It could have changed over the last two decades, though, I am not sure.”

“Alright, I’m going to send her another Message,” Jester informs Vilya and casts another spell. “ _No, don’t go anywhere, tell me where your mom can go to find you instead! She is going home soon and she needs a tree!_ “

The pause between her Message and Keyleth’s reply is shorter this time, but the panic and the anxiety isn’t gone from her voice still.

“ _How are you in my head? Are you Ortax? Can Ortax change his voice? Or are you like him? I am not making any deals—”_

Jester shakes her head again. “Now she’s talking about some Ortax and making deals?” She sighs heavily. “I guess a random voice in your head isn’t that convincing if your mom was lost for decades, especially if that voice isn’t even your mom’s.”

“Well—”

“Yes? Do you have an idea?”

“I am not sure what kind of magic she has or how strong she is, but if her magic is anything like mine, you could tell her to scry on me and she could see me with her own eyes.”

Jester is nodding along to Vilya’s idea before the woman even finishes speaking and then she is quickly jumping to cast another Message, clearly seeing a new kind of hope and excitement and joy now on Vilya’s face now.

“ _No Ortax, I’m really with your mom. If you can, scry on her. Either way, she’s coming home. Where can she go?_ “ A pause. She has three more words. She could leave it like that, or… “ _Are you pooping?_ ”

Vilya frowns, looking more confused than anything now, and Jester waits for any kind of affirmation or declining of her suggestion, to see if it would work or if she would need something else to convince Keyleth that she is really with her mom and that she is alive and well. If it doesn’t work, she can ask some kind of fact only Vilya would know and try to convey that in 25 words or less. It could be done, she could do it. She writes the entire message down first if needed to make sure she doesn’t run out of words, even if by the end of it she was getting really good here. The excitement overtook her during the first message.

There’s no answer coming, though, and after a whole minute of silence, she makes a big show of a shrug.

“Nothing. Maybe she’s already doing the scrying. Or she is already off to the Whitestone place and I caught her in the middle of some sort of teleportation or something. I am not sure. If nothing happens after a few more minutes, I can send another message.” She would have to tap into her higher magics, but it’s not like they had any plans to fight a non-god today. Today is going to be a chill day, she has spells to spare.

Jester doesn’t have to send another message, however, because after another minute passed, a similar sound comes from behind Vilya as when Vilya opened the trunk of the tree the other day for them to teleport back into the village, and as both of them look over, a couple of trees over a similar thing can be seen – except this time it isn’t Vilya who’s doing it, and the next thing Jester knows, a red haired woman in what seems like her pajamas rushes through the portal, followed by a guy is only wearing shorts, with a sword in his hand, bumbling under his breath in annoyance from what Jester can tell.

The redhead is looking around, over and over again and calling out, “Mom?!” her voice full of hope and desperation and urgency. So much urgency.

Vilya freezes next to Jester for a moment and then she is off, rushing away from Jester and towards who is clearly her daughter, and Jester wonders if she should wake the others so they could see the reunion too, but decides against it. if she goes to wake them, she might miss the best part.

(She usually reads porn and there isn’t a lot of familiar relationship in those, but sometimes the plot includes the pair going on a quest to find a long lost sibling or parent member, and even though the romance and the smut is what Jester reads those books for, the moment of reunion is always one of her favorite parts.

Maybe because deep down that is how she wanted her reunion with her to go, but she tries not to think too much about it. It didn’t go perfectly, but she has a dad now. She only needs to figure out how to get him to go chase after her mama again.

But this is definitely the same kind of picture-perfect reunion she read several times in her books and she is happy that Vilya gets it for her and her daughter.)

“Keyleth, my little girl!” Vilya exclaims when she is closer to Keyleth (the man moves to protect Keyleth, but backs down when he sees that Keyleth moves towards her mother as well, and switches into a general alertness), her arms already opening to embrace her daughter into a big hug, and the woman comes happily, wrapping her arms with such force around Vilya’s torso, Jester wonders if she was closer, could she hear some bones cracking.

Keyleth starts crying, no, sobbing, into her mother’s shoulders and her voice is muffled now, but Jester swears she hears her say, “It’s you! It’s really you! I can’t believe it. I thought you were dead. They said… they said they could only find a leg, so we all assumed… I am so sorry I didn’t find you sooner.”

Vilya is caressing Keyleth’s hair. “Shhhh, honey, it’s okay. You didn’t know. Of course you thought I died, it must have looked really bad. I’m sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner, I’m sorry it took me this long.”

A hand on her shoulder makes Jester jump – she was so wrapped up in the scene in front of her, she didn’t even notice somebody else woke up and came out to find her. She spins around and finds Caduceus standing behind her.

“Come, help me make tea. Let’s give them a moment of privacy,” he says.

Jester doesn’t want to go, she wants to see what else happens, wants to see the pure joy on both of their faces, but Caduceus gently pushes her inside and yeah, okay, maybe he is right. Just maybe.

Keyleth is probably not going anywhere anyway, not after finding the mom she thought was dead all these years. She’s gonna have plenty of chances during the next few days to talk to both of them and get all of the details she missed.

Who could really deny her anything, right?


End file.
